Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

To reply to Deputy Lowry, he must realise that Deputy Mattie McGrath is ill at present. He has reason to be critical of the Taoiseach and certain hospital closures in Tipperary previously. The Deputy must have forgotten that.

I start by thanking every worker in the ambulance service, in west Cork and throughout the country, who has had to work under immense pressure in a failed ambulance service. The service is untouchable as the HSE and this Government are covering up what I call a shambolic situation that, unfortunately, is costing lives day after day, and nothing is being done. I and my colleagues have tirelessly raised the crisis we see nationally. I can see at first hand the disaster this Government has allowed to happen, which has led to many incidents in west Cork. I even raised these incidents with the Taoiseach. To be honest, Shep the dog would have done something about what I raised. The Taoiseach promised to look into it but, of course, it was west Cork so nothing happened. There are a small number of ambulances in west Cork. I hear that the Castletownbere ambulance is in Kerry all the time. The Clonakilty ambulance is now dubbed the Cork city ambulance as it is always in the city. The other two are based in Bantry but are in Cork city most of the time, outside Cork University Hospital with patients. That leaves no cover for west Cork if there is an emergency call.

I will outline a small diary of incidents which would prompt a massive inquiry if they occurred in any other sector. I asked the HSE and the Taoiseach and I now ask the Minister to hold this inquiry. To date, nothing has happened. On 1 August, a man was struck in Castletownbere. There was no ambulance in Cork county so he lay on the ground for two hours and 45 minutes. Second, in late August, there was a car accident in Schull with three people injured. Fire and Garda personnel laid the three injured on the roadside and rang for an ambulance.

There was no ambulance in west Cork. They waited two hours and 30 minutes before an ambulance came from another county. There were three persons seriously injured in Skibbereen with no ambulance available in Cork county. That person died waiting.

A person on Long Island just off Schull had a suspected stroke. The family rang for an ambulance but there was no ambulance in west Cork and the family waited for one hour and 30 minutes. A few weeks ago - this made the front page of the Southern Star- I got a call from a grandparent telling me that his grandchild fell seriously ill at a school north of Bantry. The parents rushed to the school to be told they could not get an ambulance. The ambulance service advised them to drive the child to Cork University Hospital. After some frantic driving by the child's father with the mother minding the child in the back of the car, they stopped in Coppeen as they thought their child had passed away. This is scandalous and needs to be looked into.

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